Syracuse University student on summer break in China writes about earthquake

Associated PressRescuers search for survivors Tuesday in Beichuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province. At least 12,000 people have been reported dead after China's worst earthquake in three decades. Thursday, officials said the death toll could reach 50,000.

I learned about Zhouyang from her friend, Jinghui Hou, a graduate student at SU.

Here's a summary of several e-mails I received today from Zhouyang about her experience with the 7.9-magnitude quake, China's deadliest in three decades:

Actually the seismic center of this earthquake took place in Wenchuan county, 92 kilometers far from Chengdu, so Chengdu was not destroyed too much by the earthquake. When the earthquake happened, my friend and I were having a drink together in a beverage bar near Sichuan University.

We were in the first floor so that we did not feel the wave strongly. When the table was shaking, my friend asked me not to shake the table.

When we realized that it was not I that caused the table to shake, we ran out of the bar quickly. And we also saw many people were in the street. Then I tried to call my parents, but I failed.

After the earthquake, the phone could not get through at all. My friend and I went back to the campus and stayed in the playground all night until the next morning.

Provided photo.Zhouyang Wang, a graduate student at Syracuse University, was at home in China when the earthquake hit on Monday. She writes about her experience.

I asked many people about their first feelings when the earthquake happened. They all told me that they did not think that it was an earthquake when they felt the shaking.

So did I.

Chengdu is located in a basin, and never suffered earthquake before. However, the people who were in higher floors felt the shaking. They were all shocked and did not know what to do, although they knew how to protect themselves in an earthquake.

But the accident happened so suddenly that they did not have enough time to make a response. But compared to Wenchuan, Chengdu is a very lucky city. No buildings in Chengdu were collapsed while all the houses in Wenchuan were razed.

Because there still are aftershocks, so many people in Chengdu have been moved out of their houses and live outside. My parents and I have slept in the car for two nights, and tonight is our first night to live in our own house, although my mother is still worried.

Because of the dangerous conditions in Wenchuan now, the government isn't allowing us to go into the destroyed counties. So I cannot get the first-hand information.

All the information I know is from the TV or newspaper. The TV program these days are all about the after-earthquake activities, especially how the soldiers and people work together to rescue the people who are buried under the buildings.

My community limited people to go back to their houses after the earthquake. There are many volunteers. Taxi-drivers, undergraduates, farmers, merchants and so on. All in all, the Chinese people work together and tie tightly to conquer this tragedy.

I planned to come back to Chengdu to do my intern in a middle school, however this earthquake postpones my plan.

I will go back to SU in August to continue my master's program in cultural foundations of education.

Do you have a story to share about the earthquake in China? Post a comment.